Cloud Upstart 9Lenses Makes Big Bet On HP's Enterprise Grade Cloud

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HP also is providing management of the cloud customer environment with an a la carte menu, allowing customers to choose what services they want HP to provide from load-balancing to firewalls. "We allow customers to choose," he said. "We can manage it all -- zero, 10 percent. It's up to the customer to decide."

Fanella said he sees the ecosystems of VARs, ISVs and distributors blend as they move aggressively to deliver cloud services. "The channel side of the business is getting more complex and those lines are blurring," he said. "ISVs are becoming value-added resellers. Distributors are buying software companies."

Fanella said his message to channel partners is to move aggressively to embrace the SaaS model, taking advantage of critical HP Cloud offerings like HP Enterprise Cloud Services SaaS Accelerator. The SaaS Accelerator program provides VARs and ISVs the expertise and tools to get software services up and running quickly on the HP Cloud.

The HP SaaS Accelerator is just the start of the HP Cloud Services effort, said Fanella. He promised more tools and services to help companies grow their businesses. "There are terms and conditions that make it pretty favorable for ISVs and VARs to run their business in the cloud with HP," he said. "But it is not just the terms and conditions; it is also the ability to help them grow their business."

HP currently has a SaaS storefront and is eyeing marketplaces to enable SaaS companies to drive sales growth. HP also has the ability to put new SaaS offerings into the hands of its direct sales force, he said. "We want to make sure those VARs and ISVs become really successful," he said. "If they do, our business grows exponentially."

Fanella said he sees a marked pickup in both VARs and ISVs making the move to SaaS. "Good VARs move where the market is moving," he said. "Customers are asking hardware VARs if they can buy Software-as-a-Service apps from them. We are seeing more VARs move to meet client expectations." A significant number of VARs are also increasingly reselling HP Cloud and virtual private cloud, he said.

Many VARs and ISVs, he said, struggled initially with making the SaaS move because it requires them to adjust to a completely new business model, said Miller. "When a company decides to add on to their perpetual software license business, that is a CEO decision," he said.

"They want to pilot it and test it. We helped a lot of these companies with regard to an ROI analysis on the cloud. If the CEO is convinced that financially it makes sense to offer their Software-as-a-Service, the time it takes for them to work with us and move their apps to the cloud is much faster. What we have found is it is a financial discussion first. Once we get them over that financial decision, it happens very fast."